When I finish a TV series or book series that I absolutely loved, I usually go through a dry spell afterwards. That was definitely the case after I finished Harry Potter... I just didn't want to read anything because nothing seemed appealing after that! I finished one book during the summer... ONE! That's unheard of for me! I picked a lot up and got several chapters in, then I just stopped reading. I never do that! It was a bit depressing! I finally picked some books up though, so here are my thoughts on them.
On a sidenote, the last couple of weeks I've slowly started buying so books I've been wanting to read on Book Bub, and I've asked for a Kindle for Christmas. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things soon!
I was so excited to get my hands on this because I had seen it on every "must read" list this summer. I waited for it to come in at the library and read the hardback copy (which I really prefer ebooks to hardback), so I was anxious to get through it. Let me tell you, I was so disappointed in this book! I read The Wife Between Us in between Harry Potter books, and this was the exact same plot line... it blew my mind how much they were alike. I really couldn't believe it. I hadn't read anything similar to this plot before these, so it was so odd to me that there were two books exactly alike that came out at the same time. It was very predictable, and even though it's pitched as a psychological thriller, it definitely isn't! It was more like "heavy chic lit." Maybe I would've liked it more had I not read the other book first, but it just felt like a copycat. I was very disappointed!
Sometimes when you lose your way in the world of reading, you just have to pick up what you know and love and start there. For me, that's adolescent literature. Besides The Great Gatsby, my favorite all-time books are in the adolescent literature genre. I've known of Jacob Have I Loved for years, but I just now read it. It's about twins with a deep and complicated sibling rivalry during World War II. The girls live on a fictional island in the Chesapeake Bay, and this story focuses on their teenage years. This is an adolescent novel, but I don't feel like anyone younger than high school would really grasp the deep undertones and adult feelings that make up this great book. It's heavy - not at all lighthearted, but I loved it.
This is another children's novel by the same author of Jacob Have I Loved, and it's a doozy. I saw the play when I was young, so I avoided reading it forever since I knew what was going to happen. I've made a goal for myself to read all the Newbury Award Winners (excellent, award winning books in children's literature), and this book was on the list. It didn't disappoint! Like I said about Jacob Have I Loved, it's heavy, and I don't feel like children would understand all the deep emotions woven into the two main characters. If you know what happens in this book, you'll know why I cried like a baby at the end. I knew it was coming, but I just couldn't adequately prepare myself for the ending!
This book is another Newbury Award Winner, and it was a good one! It's based on a true story about a gorilla who lives in a mall, and it pulled at my heartstrings! I cried a few times as I read! I flew through this book, and it would be a very appropriate and good read for young kids. It also has a nonfiction text that goes with it, and my students loved it as well.
This was a book I got on Book Bub, and I have very mixed emotions about it. I couldn't put it down, which felt great after such a long dry spell, but so many parts of it left me mad! I also predicted the ending, which I NEVER do! I don't know if the author just had some great foreshadowing techniques in there, or if it was blatantly obvious... I'd need to hear someone else's opinion who's also read it. Anyways, this is about a woman who falls madly in love with a guy while she's in college, and then he leaves to go overseas for work. She meets someone else and her life goes on, but she's still in love with the college boyfriend. It spans over 13 years, and I stayed mad at her almost through the whole book! I don't want to give away anything, so I'll stop there. I will say that if any book ever needed one more chapter or an epilogue, it was this one! It left it so unfinished... I don't want to have to "finish" a book in my head, and you definitely do this one. I wanted concrete answers and conclusions, and you definitely don't get that in this one. It was good, but if you're looking for happy and feel good, this one isn't for you.
